So Darren Wilson gets a pass for killing Michael Brown and blends back into society as if nothing ever happened? It looks that way. According to The New York Times, the U.S. Justice Department will likely clear Wilson of gunning down black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
Wilson, the white Ferguson, Missouri police officer, has already been cleared by a grand jury in Brown’s shooting. Wilson, who will not return to the Ferguson Police Department, wrote in his resignation letter that his “continued employment may put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance I cannot allow.”
For many in the black community, the Justice Department investigation was the last resort. It’s the probe black folks have been waiting for. But an FBI investigation has found no evidence to support charges against Wilson, though a federal civil rights investigation into whether Ferguson police engaged in discriminatory traffic stops and used excessive force remains open, the Times reported.
“Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation,” the Times articled says.
It’s an unfortunate end to a tragic case. Both Holder and President Barack Obama have talked openly about their concern over confrontations between police and black men and said they understood the longstanding friction between police and the black community. When Holder landed in Ferguson, Missouri, last year, his rare and unprecedented visit sent a clear signal to the nation that Obama, America’s first Black president, and Holder, America’s first Black U.S. Attorney General, are also two high-profile Black fathers who understand the precarious racial dynamic in America.
Darren Wilson Likely Cleared By Feds; Where’s The Justice? was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
